Washington Township, Pennsylvania Firefighters Battle Gas Well Fire

Photostory
Jan 2, 2003

On Monday, December 23rd, around 12 am, a call came in for a wall fire on arrival we found
a gas well on fire with one burn patient.

The workers were in the process of
removing the drilling fixtures when the gas vapors came in contact with a
portable light they were using and ignited There were 3 diesel fuel tanks
next to the drilling rig.

Upon arrival we were informed of the tanks and
started cooling the tanks with foam.

After a water supply was established
were started working at putting the fire out so the well drilling company
could cap it.

The extinguishment of the fire was hampered by the remote area
in which the fire was in.

We laid 1500 ft. of 5" off of the one lane road
which accessed the the well road.

We had put the fire out once when the
drilling company went to turn the fixture it sparked igniting and catching
one of the workers in the flames.

He was quickly put out with the safety
lines.

This was the first call for our new quint and as you can see it was
in mud up to the front tires.

This back country road where the well road was
off of was used as a test road to see if the new truck could get around our
area.